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Monday, 14 November 2011

Turf war in Tamil Nadu police?

If whispers doing rounds among the top police officers in Tamil Nadu are of any indication, a serious turf war is on in the Khakhi circles. The recent shuffle in the intelligence wing this September seems to be the prime reason behind this turf war .

Many were surprised when T.Rajendran, was posted as ADGP intelligence despite his strong links with the DMK leadership during the previous regime. But the next day, K.Ramanujam, was posted as DGP intelligence...

All of a sudden on 29 September 2011 T.Rajendran was shunted out from the post and AG.Pon.Manickavel was posted as DIG Intelligence... when the intelligence wing already had a DIG Intelligence…Sathyamurthy. The induction of Pon.Manickavel resulted in Sathyamurthy being completely sidelined. K.N.Sathyamurthy who was looking after regular intelligence, including political intelligence was allotted with the task of looking after extremists and special division, which is considered as a post without charm.

From day one, Pon.Manickavel started asserting himself in the intelligence wing, say sources. Seeing Sathyamurthy as a threat to his unfettered powers, Pon.Manickavel engineered his transfer out of intelligence wing and made him DIG, Madurai. Well It did not stop there...in an aim to bring Chennai City too under his control Pon.Manickavel made the next move. R.Nallasivam, who was Joint Commissioner of Police, Intelligence in Chennai city was transferred out. The post of JC, IS, Chennai city which was hitherto DC, IS was created by the new government expecting heavy workload following the merger of suburban commissionerate with Chennai.

Following the transfer of Nallasivam, the newly created post ofJC.IShas now been downgraded to that of the level of Additional Deputy Commissioner and filled up by a Pon.Manickavel loyalist.

Sources in the Khakhi department say... Pon. Manickavel who is deter-mined to retain the post and to be in the good books of Amma has been over enthusiastic. After the arrival of Pon.Manickavel, the responsibility of sending Daily intelligence reports to the CM has also been taken over by Pon.Manickavel him. DGP Ramanujam, who is a man least concerned by power struggles never objected to Pon.Manickavel sending the reports directly to CM.

Whispers doing rounds that cannot be ignored in TN's intelligence circles is that Pon.Manickavel is taking instructions from M.Natarajan, Sources also say that Natarajan, who is popularly called as MN wants to identify officers in the intelligence wing belonging to a particular and powerful community.

The buzz in the department is that MN had made it clear to Pon.Manickavel that people belonging to a particular community in Tamil Nadu police should be given important postings preferably in Chennai city. Sources say MN has chosen IPS officers Chockalingam, Masanamuthu and Pon.Manickavel with this task and they are termed as the ‘deadly trio’ among police brass.

MN also desires to make P.Sivanandi as IG intelligence and that is the buzz doing rounds in the corridors of DGP HQ. But given the attitude of Pon.Manickavel it is likely to be objected by him.

Also Jayashree, IPS, who was relegated to an insignificant post by the present government for her closeness with Pottu Suresh also would be assigned with a good post,as she belongs to that community.

Many senior officers are very uncomfortable with the concentration of so much power on a single man. They cite the example of the previous government where such a concentration led to disastrous consequences. Assessing the intelligence wing staff by their community is also not going down too well and it has disappointed many in the intelligence wing.

In the wake of continuous failures on many occasions...men in Khakhi say Chief Minister wants to strengthen intelligence in the state...but these recent developments in the intelligence wing appears to be a matter of concern for many officers and many fear that it could break into an all out war ultimately affecting the performance.